Dark Souls 2 (PC/PS4/XB1/PS3/360)

[tyven]

I just beat last giant and the persuer last night I am so sad that I have only had a few hours to play. All these posts make me want to cancel every plan i've ever made and reclaim my weekend for glorious dark souls magic

i'm also really bitter about blowing 13.4k souls on the damn fall down ring

[Charismatic]

Boss spoilers:

Spoiler: show

I somehow made my way to the Blue Cathedral last night (I hadn't dropped any bosses yet when I started last night but I was on a fuckin roll, knocked out last giant, pursuer, dragonrider and... "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?" in the Blue Cathedral. I never thought I'd have that feeling seeing good ol' Orn. Now I'm really interested in reading every single item description. I really really care about this Drangleic place now.)

[Krazy]

I just beat last giant and the persuer last night I am so sad that I have only had a few hours to play. All these posts make me want to cancel every plan i've ever made and reclaim my weekend for glorious dark souls magic

i'm also really bitter about blowing 13.4k souls on the damn fall down ring

If it makes you feel better, that ring gets a fair amount of use. Also, unless I'm remembering wrong, you were looking for a cool scythe. I found one made out of bones from a merchant you trade boss souls to.

[tyven]

If it makes you feel better, that ring gets a fair amount of use. Also, unless I'm remembering wrong, you were looking for a cool scythe. I found one made out of bones from a merchant you trade boss souls to.

YES TELL ME MORE OF THIS SCYTHE

[Krazy]

YES TELL ME MORE OF THIS SCYTHE

Spoiler: show

You'll need a fragrant branch of yore to cure petrification of the merchant. He's located in a jail cell in The Lost Bastille, and there's a convenient bonfire right behind him. You'll also need to kill the Covetous Demon from Earthen Peak, which is past the Harvest Valley. In the Harvest Valley you can find two of the fragrant branches you need. The scythe itself feels like the Lifehunt Scythe from Dark Souls.

[Souj]

Is it the scythe the npc invader outside skeleton lords uses?

[Krazy]

It might be, I was paying more attention to the cool looking helmet they were wearing.

[Kuishen]

No one can argue that it doesn't make the game easier.
But artificially increased difficulty by making the player make mistakes through sheer tediousness is not a good thing.

Dark Souls is all about risk vs. reward though and that mechanic takes away a lot of risk. There aren't any bosses that I've come across so far that you can't run through all the enemies to get to that were any harder than any of the runs in Dark Souls 1 (The one in the gulch/gutter aside, but there's actually a bonfire to the right halfway down that gauntlet, but the difficulty in that run isn't from the mobs), if you're capable enough.

Not only that but bonfires are generally closer to the bosses in this one too, so there's even less of a reason to have added this type of mechanic.

[tyven]

Found a Basilisk that dropped

Spoiler: show

a Bleed Stone (imbues weapon with lacerating), Raw Stone (changes weapon to raw) and a Darknight Stone (imbues weapon with dark).

It was right next to a bonfire and I wanted to see what it'd drop, so I used my rusty coin and just ran back and forth, killing it until it no longer re-spawned.

where is this at?

[Kaelan?]

Is there some kind of trick to getting the Staff of Amana?

Spoiler: show

I heard I was supposed to get it in the Shrine, but I've killed about 5000 maidens and they never drop the damn thing. Second time I was supposed to get a staff upgrade in this game so far and haven't been able to b/c of the item drops sucking. Still wearing starter staff at SL107. I hope I don't end up having to burn an effigy just to kill more of them.

[tyven]

do throwing knives stay so strong through the whole game? holy smokes

[Deadgye]

Artificially increased difficulty

Scrub.

Dark Souls is all about risk vs. reward though and that mechanic takes away a lot of risk.

You have to go through the 'low risk' way a very fair amount of times before you're allowed a fast low risk way. This decision also allowed them to be more unforgiving with mob placement. (I'm looking at you, Sinners Rise.) But more importantly I believe the soul memory mechanic has a large influence on this decision as well.

[tyven]

holy fuck did i lol @ the yolo

[Avarice]

FromSoft, I love you so much right now; they even thought about keeping people from Cloud Save cheesing.

Spoiler: show

Spoiler cause huge.

[Jaxzer]

Lmao that's brillant. Guess I'm screwed since I killed the white soapstone NPC till NG+?

[Deadgye]

So. There are secret wall doors. You reveal/open them by pressing 'x' (ps3) on top of them.

So many shortcuts/hidden items. I just got a ring that reduces durability loss.

[Avarice]

So. There are secret wall doors. You reveal/open them by pressing 'x' (ps3) on top of them.

So many shortcuts/hidden items. I just got a ring that reduces durability loss.

Yea, I thought you hit them; was getting frustrated at why it wouldn't open; then I went around mashing X and suddenly sliding doors everywhere.

[Souj]

There aren't any bosses that I've come across so far that you can't run through all the enemies to get to that were any harder than any of the runs in Dark Souls 1 (The one in the gulch/gutter aside, but there's actually a bonfire to the right halfway down that gauntlet, but the difficulty in that run isn't from the mobs), if you're capable enough.

Not only that but bonfires are generally closer to the bosses in this one too, so there's even less of a reason to have added this type of mechanic.

Exactly. The enemies mostly aren't even a challenge and only serve to waste time. The run to the Executioner Chariot is the best case of this I could think of. 10 enemies stand in your way. Only 1 is even a hassle to kill. 4 I could kill in a single hit and the last 4 I could stun lock in a single hit and kill them in 4. There was virtually no chance of me dying and the run only served to waste time. Most of the ways from bonfire to boss room are like that.
They didn't have to add a travel system, but it gets rid of needless running. They didn't have to let you be able to use several souls at a single time either. It would have made Dark Souls 2 a little bit harder if you had to use each individual soul one at a time like in Dark Souls 1. Where's the complaint for that?

[Avarice]

How many shards and bone dusts are there? I'm currently at nine uses of an Estus Flask +4; not sure how much farther it can go up.

[AoE]

Yo fuck The Gutter and fuck people who don't use torches.